I’m at home today awaiting the arrival of family, so I’m taking this time to install the doors on the pantry I built into a wee hallway between my living room and dining room. And though I’m at home, my good drill bits (the boxed set of seven) are not. It’s almost worth it...

I’m (theoretically) off work from now through January (I already know I’ll be popping into the shop a few times over the holiday, though, and I’ve a massive pile of editing to get through). But just in case I consume too much eggnog in the coming weeks and forget, here’s my holiday gift: a...

Hilla Shamia’s work is among the most arresting marriages of wood and metal I’ve seen. Her pieces are made using a casting process Shamia developed while working toward a bachelor’s degree in industrial design at the Holon Institute of Technology in Holon, Israel. (She now has her own studio.) She calls it Wood Casting,...

About a month after I joined the Popular Woodworking staff (so three weeks after I learned to spell “rabbet”), I traveled to New Jersey with then Senior Editor David Thiel (he’s now in charge of our videos) for a woodworking show. I remember three things about that 2005 trip: I’ve never been so ill...

Here’s a little something that kicked off my crazy over the last year: Wanting a home that has space for a nice shop. For those of you who are new to this blog, I had my house on the market for six months in 2013, because though I do like the place (and have...

I’m spoiled. I’m in the enviable position of trying out new tools that come into Popular Woodworking. Sometimes I take them home for testing, if I’ve a project there where I’ll be better able to put a tool through its paces. (Ethics – as well as the need to take good pictures – dictate...

Hand-forged hardware is a great way to make your projects that much more hand made – and if you can work with a blacksmith to “personalize” the hardware, so much the better (in the right circumstances, of course – cat heads might look a bit silly on a Stickley cellarette). The cat-head iron lifts...

Ask for a week at a woodworking school – any respected woodworking school – and take a class that includes at least a handful of other students. There is simply no better way to quickly improve your woodworking than to learn a few techniques and approaches from someone who knows what she or he...

Today’s pick is one I actually have. Books are my first love, and from a very young age. (In fact, years ago I camethisclose to pursuing a graduate degree in the history of books and book making.) Woodworking came later in life, but is now equally important to me. So something that combines both...